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Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Going out with a bang (SFYS)

I'll probably regret staying for the entire Sing-for-Your-Supper (solely due to having a cold), but it was a very emotional evening. Scott Garland had already decided that three years in the saddle was enough, and he decided to mostly focus on his own writing and acting. However, that wasn't the big news. The big, terrible news is that the landlords of the Storefront Theatre have decided to tear up their lease and go with a more commercial tenant. This is the same crap that happened to Unit 102. Storefront has basically decided there is no way they can finish out the season, so they are cancelling Stupid F*cking Bird in March. I am so disappointed. They'll try to regroup in the summer and see where they end up. Maybe it will be Leslieville for a while, until that gets too gentrified.

Sing-for-your-supper will try to go on, perhaps taking a month off to regroup. I could see them perhaps trying to get slotted in at The Social Capital. Anyway, it was tough news to hear, and I feel really badly for the company.

On a more positive note, I actually had three people come out from work to see the piece with two more of their friends. They really enjoyed themselves (and said that they might come out more often). This was one of the strongest line-ups I've seen. When it came to my piece, I thought the actors did a great job. As it happens, I brought some big white gloves that were used for the Mickey character and a small Mickey Mouse doll. It really helped. The actor that played the waiter was really almost surly, which never would have happened at Disney World, but it was funny. He then put on an amazing Mickey Mouse voice. The audience was laughing so hard that one of the lines got swallowed and the actor repeated it, but it still didn't quite hit. Nonetheless, I think it went over really well, and Kat Letwin said that I had totally nailed the Disney experience for her.

I handed out a few more cards, and I think I will recruit one of the actors to play a few roles in an evening of shorts. She has the connections to make it happen, though ultimately it is about how much money am I willing to shell out (for director, stage manager, etc.). Anyway, it's something to think about. I basically have to get enough momentum going and enough other people interested that I can't back out. I'll post more thoughts on this as things start shaping up, but now I've got to get some rest and try to shake this cold.

Edit to add: I'm still not feeling great, but I have a feeling the cold should basically be over by Thurs. I left work early (very rare for me) and slept from 4 pm to 9 pm. Now I'm a little wired, but I'll try to do a bit of reading, drink some herbal tea and get to bed by 10:30 or so.

The story about the Storefront closing hit Twitter naturally but also The Star. I see that they are at least contemplating putting up a couple of the productions. Somewhat selfishly I hope that would include Stupid F*cking Bird, since they must have put up some dough for the rights. Even more selfishly, I hope they look into Coal Mine or Crow's Theatre, since they would be super convenient for me. Anyway, time will tell what they decide to do.

I went through my archives and it appears that I had 5 pieces put on by SFYS -- the first Straying South in Feb 2015, then Wet in Sept. 2015, then The Re-Up in May 2016, followed by the The Pitch in June 2016 and finally Meeting Mr. Mouse in Jan. 2017. It looks like I sent in a total of 10 pieces, though in one case the file was completely corrupted. On one occasion I missed the deadline and on another I came in so late that they had chosen the line-up already. (I almost always got things in on the last day...) Perhaps I should have resubmitted them, but I had already moved on. So personally I am counting my success rate as 5/8. It is certainly possible that the Toronto Cold Reads will take one or two of the other pieces, but perhaps not. I don't want to get too hung up over it. Anyway, my idea for an evening of shorts would include three of the ones put on at SFYS and one piece done in Chicago, along with two short monologues to get the audience ready. It's starting to come together in my mind, and I need to run it past a couple of people to see if this really makes any sense, or if it would be too much of a good thing. More later.